Kidney Transplants

A 26-year-old woman underwent what doctors said was the world's first heart-liver-kidney transplant Sunday. Cindy Martin of Archbald was listed in critical condition Sunday night, considered normal after a transplant operation, said Lisa Rossi, a spokeswoman for University-Presbyterian Hospital. The operation began at 7:35 p.m. Saturday and ended at 5 p.m. Sunday, Rossi said.

Since ancient times, surgeons have dreamed of transplanting healthy organs into patients disabled by disease and injury, but the human body's powerful immune system stymied all such attempts, leading many observers to conclude that the procedure was impossible. But on Dec. 23, 1954, Dr. Joseph E. Murray of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston removed a healthy kidney from 23-year-old Ronald Herrick and implanted it in his identical twin, Richard, who was dying of severe kidney disease.

Oklahoma State football Coach Bob Simmons has undergone a kidney transplant with his wife donating the kidney. "The surgery went very smoothly and there have been no complications," Simmons said in a statement released through the school on Monday. Simmons, 49, and his wife, Linda, were released from University Hospital on Saturday. Simmons did not discuss his medical history and the reasons for the transplant. Simmons had not publicly commented on the surgery until Monday.

David Trujillo's torso is a web of scars. Shunts in his arms, hoses in his stomach, garish gashes left from biopsies and scalpel incisions. In the summer when he goes shirtless, people often stare. Sometimes, to lighten the mood, he'll say he was bitten by a shark. In reality, his body tells the tale of multiple bouts of kidney failure. David recently received yet another transplant. No. 4. He is 29 years old. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, only about 150 people since 1988 have received four kidney donations.

Doctors successfully removed a kidney from an Orange County woman Wednesday and transplanted it into her husband, a gravely ill diabetic, marking yet another milestone in the lives of a Mission Viejo couple whose story has drawn national attention. With network television cameras taping their every move, doctors operated on Victoria Ingram-Curlee, 45, for two hours, then spent another hour preparing four arteries in her left kidney for insertion into her husband, Randall Curlee, 46. Dr.

Following up on Wednesday's story "Sacrifice for a Friend," the kidney transplant surgery scheduled for that afternoon between Janet Dixon and Dennis Gates was postponed. About an hour before the 1 p.m. surgery, UCLA doctors canceled the operation because Dixon's red blood cell count was too low. The surgery is expected to be rescheduled within the next couple of weeks, according to UCLA officials.

Philippines President Ferdinand E. Marcos had kidney transplants in 1983 and 1984, amid speculation that he was seriously ill, according to a published report. The Pittsburgh Press reported Sunday in a copyright story that Drs. Enrique Ona and Potenciano Baccay said the transplants were performed in August, 1983, and November, 1984, at the Philippines National Kidney Foundation in Manila. Newsweek magazine had a similar report.

Kidney transplant patients at St. Vincent Medical Center have died at a higher-than-expected rate over the last several years, raising questions about the quality of care at one of the nation's oldest and busiest transplant programs. Thirty-six people who received transplants from January 2002 to June 2004 died within a year of surgery.

A new "magic bullet" drug that has proved highly effective in halting the rejection of kidney transplants was approved Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration. The drug is a so-called monoclonal antibody created from the cells of mice. FDA Commissioner Frank E. Young suggested that the precedent set by the approval will speed consideration of other promising monoclonal antibodies designed to fight cancer as well as the rejection of other transplanted organs.

Six years after successfully receiving a heart transplant, auto racing legend Carroll Shelby got a new kidney Tuesday--from his 50-year-old son, Michael. The operation, at an unspecified Los Angeles hospital, was a success, according to Don Rager, chief operating officer for Shelby American, Inc. "The doctors are expecting a speedy recovery for both," Rager said. No other information was released because, Rager said, the family desired privacy.

"#calebskidney is almost ready to arrive in Caleb's surgery room!" So says a Twittercast of a kidney transplant now underway at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Kristofer Karol, public relations coordinator at Indiana University Health, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday morning that this isn't the first time a hospital has live tweeted a surgery -- laying bare on a social media platform what goes on behind the closed doors of an operating room -- but it's a first for Indiana.

SERIES Must Love Cats: John meets a team that performs kidney transplants on cats in this new episode (8 p.m. Animal Planet). The Firm: Mitch (Josh Lucas) finally gets Sarah (Alex Paxton-Beesley) to tell him the truth about her case in this new episode (9 p.m. NBC). Bayou Billionaires: The unscripted series wraps its first season (9 p.m. CMT). Live From Daryl's House: Eric Hutchinson performs in this new episode (11:30 p.m. KTLA). SPECIALS Kids' Choice Awards 2012: Children choose their favorites from music, film, television and sports.

One Marine's tragedy became another's lifeline this month as medical staff on opposite sides of the country worked quickly on an out-of-the-ordinary kidney donation. The fast-paced transplant underscores the deep bond among service members and their families, according to friends and relatives. As Sgt. Jacob Chadwick prepared to leave the hospital Aug. 11, hundreds of police cars and motorcycles escorted 2nd Lt. Patrick Wayland's casket through his hometown of Midland, Texas, where thousands lined the streets waving American flags.

More than 20,000 of the roughly 82,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant in the United States have the odds stacked against them because they are what doctors call “HLA sensitized.” That means that a previous transplant, blood transfusion or pregnancy has primed their immune systems to reject a donor organ that isn't a perfect match. But a work-around developed at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore could improve the fortunes of these patients. Researchers there have figured out a way to erase their bodies' memory of being HLA sensitized, in most cases clearing the way for a successful transplant from a donor who isn't a perfect match.

Kidney transplant rules might be in for a big shake-up. The organization that oversees allocation of transplants has proposed changes that would favor giving the highest quality organs to younger, healthier people.  Right now, people register with the United Network for Organ Sharing to await a kidney from a deceased donor -- and there simply aren't enough organs to go around. "In a perfect scenario, all who need a kidney transplant would receive one without delay," the proposal says.

USC University Hospital halted kidney transplants last month after a kidney was accidentally transplanted into the wrong patient, according to a spokesman for the program that coordinates organ transplants in Los Angeles. The patient who received the wrong kidney escaped harm, apparently because the kidney happened to be an acceptable match, said Bryan Stewart, spokesman for the program, OneLegacy, which was notified of the error by the hospital. The hospital, which performs about two transplants a week, confirmed in a statement that it had voluntarily halted transplants Jan. 29 after a "process error" was discovered.

A kidney transplant operation involving two newlyweds was postponed Wednesday when a radiologist performing a routine test on the Mission Viejo donor nicked an artery in her left kidney, imperiling her ability to donate either kidney to her husband.

The short-term outcomes of kidney transplant patients have improved significantly over the last decade, according to a study in today's New England Journal of Medicine. Between 1988 and 1996, tthe one-year survival rate for grafts from living donors increased from 88.8% to 93.9%. The survival rate for grafts from cadavers improved from 75.7% to 87.7%, according to a team headquartered at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Six months ago, dental hygienist Jodi Tamen sent one of her kidneys west from Chicago to a stranger in Los Angeles ? a high-spirited, gray-bearded poet named G. Murray Thomas. Last week, Tamen flew out herself to celebrate with the man whose life her gift restored. I met up with them on Thursday, at poetry night on the campus of Loyola Marymount University, where Thomas read from his soon-to-be published collection of poems, titled "My Kidney Just Arrived. " An outsized man, newly robust, Thomas wore a bright Hawaiian shirt and clutched a sheaf of thank-you cards signed by his friends.

At 8:25 Thursday morning, Dr. Peter Schulam extracted a healthy kidney from a 60-year-old woman, slipped it into a bowl of sterile ice and wheeled it into the operating room next door. The donor, Nancy Seruto, a San Dimas mother, had never met the recipient, a 67-year-old retired flight attendant from Santa Ana. Less than two hours later, Seruto's husband was on the same operating table at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Another stranger, a 53-year-old Chatsworth mother of two, was giving him a kidney.